Abstract The following chapter is intended to provide a comprehensive field description of the Tòrridonian, replacing that given in the Geological Survey’s NW Highlands memoir of 1907, and citing all relevant literature. Stratotypes and palaeocurrents are described, along with the section lines used to construct the regional stratigraphic sections (Figs 4&23), but detailed consideration of topics such as geochemistry, diagenesis, sediment source areas, palaeomagnetism and basin tectonics is contained in Chapters 2–5. for convenience the rocks are described under thirty-three compact subareas, most of which are shown on Plate 2. This plate also locates all figured maps and sections. The Directory starts with Cape Wrath and continues with sub-areas progressively farther south.

Abstract The Moine Thrust Belt in NW Scotland is fundamental for developing an understanding of complex fault systems and continental tectonics. The high-quality geological mapping, exceptional structural interpretation and insight of the late nineteenth century that underpins this is chronicled here. The Geological Survey of Great Britain mapped the thrust belt over a 14 year period, at 1:10 560, but it took five decades for the individual 1:63 360 map sheets to be published. The mapping itself was hampered by access problems, illness and prevailing weather. The deployment of expert staff to this region of few apparent economic resources threatened the status of the Geological Survey. Map publication was hindered by the transition from hand-coloured to full-colour printing, together with the restrictions of publishing to a strict grid that incorporated complex geology outside the thrust belt itself. This history of fieldwork, publication and outreach by the Geological Survey is placed in an environmental and logistical context to identify the challenges not only for the mapping itself but also in sharing the results in publication. The execution of these activities provides lessons for developing coherent interpretation in complex geology and the challenges in charting their uncertainties and alternative explanations.

Abstract During the Palaeogene, the NW European continental margin was the site of intense volcanic activity in response to lithospheric thinning and, ultimately, at c. 55 Ma, the formation of a new ocean crust (e.g. White 1988, 1992; Saunders et al. 1997) ( Fig. 14.1 ). Along the west coast of Scotland, vestiges of this period of magmatism take the form of continental (flood) lava sequences, together with shallow intrusive centres and associated lava shields, dyke swarms and sill complexes (Emeleus & Bell 2003). The igneous activity spanned the interval c. 60.5 Ma to 55 Ma and appears to have been intermittent, with significant hiatuses between periods of rapid growth of the lava fields and intrusive activity (Bell & Jolley 1997). The magmatism is attributed to the impact of the protoIceland plume at the base of the lithosphere, which produced approximately contemporaneous volcanic and intrusive activity between NW Europe and Arctic Canada. The siting of the lava fields was largely controlled by crustal thinning events in the Mesozoic (Thompson & Gibson 1991), whereas the location of the central complexes was strongly influenced by considerably older lineaments. Subsequently, ocean floor spreading took place between NW Europe and East Greenland and between central West Greenland and Baffin Island. The magmas that were erupted or emplaced at the time of continental breakup were not typical of plumes sourced from deep levels in the mantle, and involved much MORB-like material, derived from the upper (depleted) mantle (Saunders et al. 1997). The rate of melt production

Abstract Eight Quarrying Companies Royal Engineers were raised during World War II, the first four in 1940. Unable to deploy to France as planned, these were used initially for bomb disposal, but from January 1941 companies 851 and 854 (succeeded in 1942 by 857) quarried stone for the construction of two military ports in western Scotland. In early to mid-1943, these companies were sent to support Allied forces in the North African Campaign and, from December 1943, the subsequent Italian Campaign. Other companies initially focused on ports and airfields associated with operations in the Atlantic: Company 853 quarried from 1941 to 1942 in Northern Ireland; Company 855 was deployed in 1941 to Poolewe in NW Scotland, before assignment in 1942–43 to Gibraltar; and companies 125 and 856 quarried from 1942 to 1943 on the Faroe Islands. Four companies were successively employed from 1942 to 1944 quarrying in Oxfordshire to aid the construction of a Central Ordnance Depot. Although three companies were operational in the Mediterranean region, the other five were united in 1944 to form a Quarry Group to support Allied operations in Normandy and the subsequent campaign across northern France, Belgium and into Germany. All eight received some geological guidance; all were disbanded before 1947.

Abstract The northerly location of Scotland in the British Isles, its mountainous terrain largely on its western side, openness to the northeast Atlantic and consequent high precipitation, ensured that it was a major centre of ice throughout the Pleistocene. Powerful ice-streams left glacial deposits on the continental shelf (Chapter 11), glaciated Ulster, northeast England, the Irish Sea Basin, notably as far south as Pembrokeshire in Wales, County Waterford in Ireland and the Wolverhampton district in Staffordshire. The main centres of ice accumulation were in the north and west of Scotland, with other centres located in the Southern Uplands and in Skye. The ‘pre-glacial’ watershed, that lay to the west of Scotland, ensured that the most spectacular glacial erosion occurred in the north and west. Deep and extensive glacial erosion effectively removed most of the deposits of pre-Late Devensian over wide areas. Such deposits are only poorly preserved in the ‘rain-shadow’ areas of northeast Scotland and in the Inverness region, along with other fortuitous preservation elsewhere as, for example, in Ayrshire, but even there the record only extends back to the Middle Devensian.